The Scout Report

June 19, 1998

A Publication of the Internet Scout Project
Computer Science Department, University of Wisconsin

The Scout Report is a weekly publication offering a selection of new and newly discovered Internet resources of interest to researchers and educators, the InterNIC's primary audience. However, everyone is welcome to subscribe to one of the mailing lists (plain text or HTML). Subscription instructions are included at the end of each report.

An Acrobat .pdf version of this report is available for printing and distributing locally. For information on Adobe Acrobat Reader, visit the Adobe site.

"A Distributed Architecture for Resource Discovery Using Metadata"--D-Lib, Scout Report for Social Sciences and Business & Economics
"A Distributed Architecture for Resource Discovery Using Metadata"--D-Lib
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june98/scout/06roszkowski.html
Scout Research
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/research/
Scout Report for Social Sciences
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/socsci/
Scout Report for Business & Economics
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/bus-econ/
The Internet Scout Project Research Team, charged with investigating and developing Internet resource discovery tools, has published an article in the June 1998 issue of D-Lib Magazine. The Scout Research Team's first project involves linking geographically distributed metadata collections into one unified, searchable collection. Their article, entitled "A Distributed Architecture for Resource Discovery Using Metadata," discusses an infrastructure "which uses standard Internet protocols, such as the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and the Common Indexing Protocol (CIP), to distribute queries, return results, and exchange index information." It further explains "the advantages of using linked collections of authoritative metadata as an alternative to using a keyword-indexing search-engine for resource discovery." The Scout Research site contains a project overview and call for collaborators, guidelines for potential collaborators, and a link to the article. The nineteenth issues of the Scout Reports for Social Sciences and Business & Economics are available. Each report annotates over twenty new and newly-discovered Internet resources. The In the News section of the Social Sciences Report annotates ten resources on the continuing Kosovo crisis. The Business & Economics Report's In the News section annotates nine resources on the economic crisis in Japan. [JS]
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Survey of Current Business--DOC BEA [.pdf]
http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/pubs.htm
What's New at BEA?
http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/whatsnew.htm
The US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis has recently made available full text (in Adobe Acrobat [.pdf] format, with file sizes between five and eight Mb) of its monthly compendium of articles and statistics about state, regional, and US business and economic conditions. The Survey of Current Business provides a mixture of analytic articles and numerical tables on various subjects. It is highlighted by a monthly Business Situation section that discusses topics such as prices, personal income, consumption, exports and imports, and government spending. The periodical also presents selected regional, national, and international tables, including National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA), Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and Foreign Direct Investment in the United States, among others. Online issues date back to January 1998. The BEA continues to make selected articles and/or tables from CB available in HTML format on its What's New at BEA? page. [JS]
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The Face of Russia--PBS [RealPlayer, QuickTime]
http://www.pbs.org/weta/faceofrussia/
Text Only
http://www.pbs.org/weta/faceofrussia/text-only.html
This site from PBS complements its three-part series of the same name. The series and site interpret the cultural history of Russia from 850 AD to the present. Exploring art, music, cinema, prose, and poetry, the show concentrates on Russian cultural history in three cities: Kiev, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. The site is highlighted by a detailed, partially annotated timeline; RealPlayer excerpts of interviews with Maxim Kantor, Dmitry Likhachev, and Mstislav Rostropovich, among others; artwork (including RealPlayer and QuickTime movies of selections from drama and cinema); and a reference section that includes a glossary, bibliography, lesson plans, and the Cyrillic alphabet. [JS]
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For the Record 1997: The UN Human Rights System
http://www.hri.ca/fortherecord1997/
Produced by Human Rights Internet (HRI), this six volume report provides a country-by-country overview of human rights issues with links to relevant UN documents. The first volume includes an introduction, an appendix of UN bodies and mechanisms, a discussion of methodological and technical issues, and notes on major developments in the United Nations human rights system during 1997. The remaining volumes contain individual country reports, grouped by region. Each report contains links to treaties and reports to treaty bodies on a number of key topics. These include: Land and People; Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Civil and Political Rights; Discrimination against Women; and Rights of the Child. Additional resources at the site include an internal search engine. [MD]
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Making PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction)
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/PCR/
Paul Rabinow, professor of Anthropology at the University of California Berkeley; Suzanne Calpestri, Head of the George and Mary Foster Anthropology Library at UC Berkeley; and Soren Germer, a recent PhD from the UC Berkeley Anthropology Department, developed this site with a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's Science and Technology in the Making (STIM) initiative. STIM encourages "use [of] an innovative approach to investigating and documenting recent/contemporary events in science and technology." Making PCR does this by furnishing over thirty "foundational papers" on the topic, in three major subject categories (foundations, applications, and technological variations of the basics). In addition, users can access Cetus' 1989 39 page PCR bibliography. These full texts are available as page images and come from several different scholarly journals. Interested users can submit their thoughts about the past and future of PCR through interactive discussion forums. [JS]
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Social Impact of the Asian Financial Crisis--ILO
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/intpol/bangkok/
The Cross-Departmental Analysis and Reports Team (CD/ART) of the International Labor Organization provide this report, prepared for discussion at the High-Level Tripartite Meeting on Social Responses to the Financial Crisis in East and South-East Asian Countries, held in Bangkok Thailand in April 1998. The four chapter report explains the origins of the crisis; its social impacts in terms of such topics as unemployment, poverty, and women and migrant workers; ameliorative policies; and lessons for future policy. The first chapter is accompanied by numerous references, many of which are hyperlinked to full text. [JS]
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Eric's Treasure Troves of Science
http://www.treasure-troves.com/
Eric W. Weisstein, research scientist in the Astronomy Department at the University of Virginia, has compiled detailed online glossaries in eight topics, as well as a scientific book bibliography. Topics include math, physics, astronomy, and chemistry. Development of the glossaries varies widely, from the over 14,000 entries for the centerpiece math glossary to the 68 entries for rocket history. In addition to his explanation of the topic, Weisstein offers hyperlinks to other entries and/or other sites. Many entries are accompanied by the sources they were derived from. There is a staggering amount of useful information here, and the whole site is a tribute to the productive energy of the author. [JS]
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Contents Pages From Law Reviews and Other Scholarly Journals--UT Tarleton Law Library
http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/tallons/content_search.html
The University of Texas at Austin's Tarleton Law Library provides this simple and powerful current awareness tool to help law researchers keep abreast of articles in the over 750 law reviews and scholarly publications Tarleton receives. The library posts tables of contents for journals it has received within the past three months. Journals are listed alphabetically and organized in very broad geographic terms (US and non-US). Simple keyword searching is available. TLL provides document delivery of requested articles for a fee. [JS]
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Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States: 1790 to 1990--US Census Bureau Working Paper 27
http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027.html
This paper presents decennial census population totals for the 100 largest cities and other urban places in the United States based on the 21 decennial censuses taken from 1790 to 1990. This is the first time that the populations of America's largest urban areas at each census have been published in a single report. The report begins with useful background on three central topics: Urban and Urban Place, City Populations and Annexations, and Cities and Their Suburbs. The data are offered in 26 detailed statistical tables and two text tables. Explanations of detailed tables, sources and limitations of the data, notes for individual places, and references are also provided. [MD]
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Global Fires
Global Fire Monitoring--NASA GSFC [QuickTime]
http://modarch.gsfc.nasa.gov/fire_atlas/fires.html
Fire Detection Around the World--NOAA NGDC
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/dmsp/fires/globalfires.html
Fires around the world have taken their toll in human life and also in terms of pollution and planetary biomass. These two sites allow interested Internauts to follow the course of global conflagrations. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Space Flight Center maintains Global Fire Monitoring to track the development of global fires. The site features photos and QuickTime movies of various fires from 1992 to the present, as well as information on the effects of fires on biomass, and a large selected bibliography. Fire Detection Around the World is produced by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Geophysical Data Center and makes its images available in the form of a clickable world map. Currently, the site is most remarkable for its daily updates of satellite photos of the fires in Mexico. [JS]
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KidsClick!
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/
KidsClick! is an annotated metasite created by librarians at the Ramapo Catskill Library System. The site contains nearly 1,800 searchable and browseable links. Links are grouped into fifteen major categories, each of which is divided into numerous sub-categories. Each record is briefly annotated (usually taken from the site description) and includes the number of illustrations, as well as the reading level of the site. Because of this, users can search for these two variables, as well as subjects, titles, and descriptions, making KidsClick! a powerful tool for finding age specific quality resources. The authors note their creative debt to the Librarians Index to the Internet (discussed in the May 2, 1997 Scout Report), as well as their content debt to the American Library Association's GreatSites (discussed in the July 11, 1997 Scout ReportM). KidsClick! is housed at the same Berkeley Sunsite (discussed in the February 9, 1996 Scout Report) as LII. The presence of two excellent subject based metasites created by public librarians on the same server is one of the factors that contributes to the overall power and excellence of the Berkeley Sunsite. [JS]
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Conservative News Service--MRC
http://www.conservativenews.org/
Provided by the Media Resource Center, the Conservative News Service aims to give users an alternative to what it calls "a liberal bias in the American news media and a frequent, liberal double-standard in editorial decisions on what constitutes 'news'." It does this via a mix of short digest news articles and longer analytical articles in eight areas, including politics, economics, defense, religion, and culture. The X-Pert/Files/Links section contains links to conservative experts and their institutions in 45 subject areas. In addition, the site includes links to information about several conservative talk shows ("Radio Uplink") and several bulletin boards. CNS was created by MRC Chairman L. Brent Bozell III. [JS]
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Medicare Consumer Publications--HCFA
http://www.medicare.gov/publications.html
The US Health Care Financing Administration provides this selection of consumer publications on Medicare, long-term care, and other health care issues. Users will find the 1997 Medicare Handbook, the 1997 Guide to Health Insurance for People with Medicare, a guide to selecting a nursing home, information on skilled nursing facilities for Medicare beneficiaries, and an overview of Medicare Managed Care. Additional information is available on Medicare and mammograms, Medicare kidney coverage, Medicare home health care, and detecting consumer fraud. [MD]
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AFI'S 100 Years 100 Movies: America's Greatest Movies [frames]
http://AFI.100movies.com/
Less Graphical Entrance
http://AFI.100movies.com/home.asp
From Citizen Kane to Yankee Doodle Dandy, the American Film Institute, using a panel of more than 1,500 film community luminaries, has announced its list of the 100 greatest American films. The AFI gives a brief synopsis as well as selected credits for each film, but the site somewhat resembles (intentionally or unintentionally) a giant video store advertisement. Of course, these ratings provide much grist for argument, but that is half the fun of lists like this. Video Clips are forthcoming. [JS]
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The World Wide Web Consortium Issues SMIL 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation
Press Release
http://www.w3.org/Press/1998/SMIL-REC
SMIL 1.0 Specification
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-smil/
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has issued its first recommendation for Synchronized Multi-media Integration Language. The specification intends to help "bring television-like content to the web, avoiding the limitations for traditional television and lowering the bandwidth requirements for transmitting this type of content over the Internet. With SMIL [pronounced smile], producing audio-visual content is easy; it does not require learning a programming language and can be done using a simple text editor." Easy authorship, accessibility, and improvement of bandwidth efficiency are among a few of the promises that SMIL may bring closer to reality. The site contains a press release, more information about SMIL, and the recommended specification. [JS]
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CNET Shopper.com
http://shopper.cnet.com/
C|net (discussed in the July 28, 1995 Scout Report) has recently launched this site, a computer-related product price search service. Users can browse or search over 100,000 products from over 100 "major cyberstores," and should be able to find the best value on any product by comparing its price at various stores. At present, products are available in fourteen major categories. Product specifications and information are usually provided via link, and online buying is supported where available. [JS]
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Internetworking--ITG Newsletter
http://www.sandia.gov/itg/newsletter/newsletter.html
The Internet Technical Group, "a community for professionals from industry, academia and government organizations who share a common interest in Internet technologies and related behavioral phenomena," provides this new irregularly issued publication that concentrates on web usability, among other areas. The first issue contains articles on user-centered web design, the Log Annotation Device (LAD) for web storage and retrieval, an introduction to graphic formats, and topical book reviews. Internetworking is edited by Scott Isensee of the IBM Corporation. [JS]
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Volume 2, Number 8, June 16, 1995
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/report/archive/.html
UC Museum of Paleontology
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/
Web Geological Time Machine
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/help/timeform.html
The University of California Museum of Paleontology is an example of a museum that created an early web presence. Highlight of the site is the online exhibits section, Paleontology Without Walls, consisting of three exhibits, Phylogeny, Geological Time, and Evolutionary Thought. One of the most interesting subsections is the Web Geological Time Machine, a hyperlinked portal of UCMP and linked resources and information organized by geological time period. All three exhibits are written and illustrated with clarity and economy and make for an excellent introduction to paleontological concepts. [JS]
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Copyright Susan Calcari and the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1994-1998. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the Scout Report provided the copyright notice and this paragraph is preserved on all copies. The Internet Scout Project provides information about the Internet to the US research and education community under a grant from the National Science Foundation, number NCR-9712163. The Government has certain rights in this material.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Wisconsin - Madison or the National Science Foundation.

The Scout Report (ISSN 1092-3861) is published weekly by Internet Scout

Susan Calcari
Jack Solock
Travis Koplow
Teri Boomsma
Michael de Nie
David Flaspohler
Aimee D. Glassel
Todd Hanson
Sheilah Harrington
Kathryn Harris
Laura X. Payne
Matthew Livesey
Christopher Lukas
Thiam Hee Ng
Jeannine Ramsey
Mike Roszkowski
Debra Shapiro
Geraldine Wanserski
Megan Waters
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